Skip to main content

KERR COUNTY, Texas - Of the nearly 1,300 school districts in Texas, at least 110 allow staff to carry firearms on campus, according to the Texas Association of School Boards.

Medina Independent School District has a sign outside of its building that reads, “Please be aware that the staff at Medina ISD may be armed and will use whatever force is necessary to protect our students.”

The Medina ISD superintendent did not return our calls to confirm if some teachers are, in fact, armed.

Hunt ISD did confirm some staff members have been armed since 2013.

"They [the school board] just felt like that it would enable us to keep our students safe based on the long possible wait time of getting law enforcement here,” Superintendent Crystal Dockery said.

Hunt ISD is in rural Kerr County. Dockery said the board made the decision to allow some staff members to be armed because it could take anywhere from one minute to 20 minutes for law enforcement to arrive since the county is large. For safety reasons, she could not share which teachers or how many are armed. Only she and local law enforcement know that information.

 

"If someone is approved to carry, they go through a psychological assessment very similar to a school marshal program that's allowed here in Texas,” Dockery said. “They also have to have a CHL and they would also go through training with law enforcement in our area."

As an administrator who has lived through a shooting at an Amarillo school in the 90s, Dockery is keeping a close eye on the outcry from Florida students who are demanding change after last week's school shooting.

"It's not about taking someone's weapon from them. The gun isn't the biggest issue. The biggest issue is what's going on in the minds of the people who are using these guns in the way that they're being used."

http://news4sanantonio.com/new...achers-to-carry-guns

CARTHAGE, Texas (KTAL) — As the national debate heats up over whether teachers should be armed in classrooms, an East Texas school district has already implemented a program that does just that.  School leaders say they want to be prepared for the worst case scenario.

Outside every Carthage Independent School District building, you will see a sign alerting visitors that staff may be armed inside.

“When I got into education, thinking about being armed or having to arm staff was the furthest from my imagination,” Superintendent Dr. Glenn Hambrick said. “I would never think that we would be at this place.”

Carthage ISD implemented its “Guardian” program in 2014. Hambrick says the Sandy Hook school shooting is what prompted the school district to take action.

“Even if you have an officer, which is also nice to have — they know who the officer is, but they don’t know who the guardians are. I think that’s what makes it the deterrent, is they really don’t know who it is that will confront them,” Hambrick said of a potential shooter.

All guardians go through extensive training at a facility that trains law enforcement officers across the country. “The main thing is that they would be able to confront an armed intruder and protect the kids.”

Every time there’s another school shooting, Hambrick says it serves as a reminder for staff members. “After this you see more people at the range and making sure that they’re where they need to be in their training,” Hambrick said, adding that the school district has a shooting range and training for staff members is ongoing.

Before the district approved the “Guardian” program, a survey was given to community members and staff — 85 percent approved arming teachers at Carthage schools.

http://kxan.com/2018/02/27/tea...xas-school-district/

Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Callisburg, Texas (CNN)While the nation debates whether teachers should carry guns to protect students from armed intruders, the question's already settled in one Texas school district, where educators have had firearms on campus for years.

And while no teacher in Callisburg, Texas, has been called on yet to fire a weapon in defense of a classroom, students in the Callisburg Independent School District say they feel safer knowing their teachers can protect them if the unthinkable happens.
About four years ago the district, which is about 85 miles north of Dallas, started what's known as the "guardian" program: a small force of volunteer school staff allowed to carry a concealed firearm on school grounds, said school superintendent Steve Clugston.
"We'll do whatever's necessary to protect our kids and staff," Clugston told CNN. "We don't want to be at the mercy of somebody that's intent on doing harm."
 
 
Clugston says the school's guardian force completes active shooter scenario training once a year and routinely takes target practice at gun ranges. Signs in front of the schools warn visitors that some staff members are armed and "may use whatever force is necessary to protect our students."
"We trying to put our teachers in a position to be better equipped to protect their kids," Clugston said. "And I have complete faith in our team, that they're willing to stand up and protect our people."
There are more than 1,000 public school districts in Texas, and about 170 of them let teachers and administrators carry concealed weapons on school grounds.

Support and push back

The National Rifle Association and other groups dedicated to protecting Second Amendment rights have advocated for armed teachers in American classrooms for years. On Thursday, President Trump -- in reaction to calls for more gun control in the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida -- suggested teachers who undergo gun training get bonuses.
But there's a lot of pushback to those ideas, and that was evident earlier this week at CNN's town hall on guns.
One woman asked Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who attended the event, just how arming teachers would work.
"Am I supposed to have a Kevlar vest?" asked Ashley Kurth, a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. "Am I supposed to strap it to my leg or put it in my desk?"
And some members of law enforcement who were at the town hall aren't big fans of the idea either.
"I don't believe teachers should be armed. I believe teachers should teach," said Scott Israel, sheriff of Broward County, Florida, where the deadly Parkland shooting happened.

'I feel really safe'

But the idea of arming teachers is welcomed in many rural communities, including by some students.
"I feel protected. I don't feel like they're going to threaten me in any way," said one student at Callisburg High School who didn't want to give her name. "I feel like if someone came in, I know that they're going to handle it. So I feel very protected."
That sense of feeling safe and protected was echoed by another student at the high school.
"I feel really safe, knowing that, I can come to school and if there's an incident that does happen that they'll be able to protect us," said the student, who also didn't want to be named.
Clugston, the superintendent, said Callisburg doesn't have a local police department and instead relies on the Cooke County Sheriff's Office for protection. He says the district needs the guardian program to keep students safe because Cooke County is so large (it's almost 900 square miles and runs from just north of Dallas to the Oklahoma state line) it could take sheriff's deputies several minutes to respond to something like a shooting at the school.
 
One woman asked Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who attended the event, just how arming teachers would work.
"Am I supposed to have a Kevlar vest?" asked Ashley Kurth, a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. "Am I supposed to strap it to my leg or put it in my desk?"
*********************************
I'd love to tell her and the other powder puffs where to put it.

 

direstraits posted:

Works well in Texas.  Worked well in Israel.  

I like Israel's gun laws. If Republicans want to support the U.S. to move toward Israel's gun laws, I'm all for it.... Just as soon as they pass those laws, we can certainly begin arming teachers.

_______________________________________________

Gun laws in Israel are comprehensive despite soldiers being allowed to carry their service weapons on or off duty. Civilians must obtain a firearms licence to lawfully acquire, possess, sell or transfer firearms and ammunition.

Only a small group of people are eligible for firearms licenses: certain retired military personnel, police officers or prison guards; residents of frontier towns (in the West Bank and the Golan Heights) or those who often work in such towns; and licensed hunters and animal-control officers. Age requirements vary: 20 or 21 for those who completed military service or civil service equivalent, 27 otherwise, and 45 for non-citizens. Firearm license applicants must have been a resident of Israel for at least three consecutive years, pass a background check (criminal, health, and mental history), establish a genuine reason for possessing a firearm (such as self-defense, hunting, or sport), and pass a weapons-training course.[51] Around 40% of applications for firearms permits are rejected.[52]

Those holding firearms licenses must renew them and pass a shooting course every three years, and undergo psychological assessment at least once every six years. Security guards must pass these tests to renew their license to carry firearms belonging to their employers.[53] Applicants must demonstrate that they have a safe at their residence in which to keep the firearm. Permits are given only for personal use, and holders for self-defense purposes may own only one handgun and purchase an annual supply of 50 cartridges (although more may be purchased to replace rounds used at a firing range).[54]

In addition to private licenses of firearms, organizations can issue carry-licenses to their members or employees for activity related to that organization (e.g. security companies, shooting clubs, other workplaces). Members of officially recognized shooting clubs (e.g.: practical shooting, Olympic shooting) are eligible for personal licenses allowing them to possess additional firearms (small bore rifles, handguns, air rifles and air pistols) and ammunition after demonstrating a need and fulfilling minimum membership time and activity requirements. Unlicensed individuals who want to engage in practice shooting are allowed supervised use of handguns at firing ranges.

Most individuals who are licensed to possess handguns may carry them loaded in public, concealed or openly.[51]

In 2005, there were 237,000 private citizens and 154,000 security guards licensed to carry firearms. Another 34,000 Israelis own guns illegally due to their failure to renew their firearms license.[55][56] In 2007, there were estimated to be 500,000 licensed small arms held by civilians, in addition to 1,757,500 by the military, and 26,040 by the police.[57][58]

Add Reply

Post

Untitled Document
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×